Despite rehearsal complications caused by this week’s winter storm, 'The Snow Queen' puppet show scheduled to open Thursday (Jan. 30) night at the Marigny Opera House is set to go on as planned.

The temperature was hovering just above the freezing point and it had begun to rain when I arrived at the old Holy Trinity church on St. Ferdinand Street in the Marigny. The 1853 white stucco landmark was repurposed as a theater three years ago. Ironically, predictions of cold temperatures, slick streets and snow threatened the final rehearsals for "The Snow Queen,' an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s wintery fairytale.

The inanimate cast of the show, a collection of large hand-made puppets, was scattered around the former sanctuary. A skeletal ice demon with ram horns stood in one corner, an endearing reindeer was hidden behind a curtain, and a golden talking flower lay near a window.

Puppet master Pandora Gastelum wore a red wool jacket, red fingerless gloves, red plastic clogs, red scarf and a funky fur cap. It was slightly less chilly inside the cavernous old church than it was outside. As she discussed the upcoming show, Gastelum untangled the translucent strings on a marionette the size of a third-grader. One side of the puppet’s revolving head featured the face of an affable woman with a flowered hat. The other side was an ominous skull.

There were problems. The show, Gastelum said, is relatively complicated. So exacting that spotlight changes and operation of the projector that would produce a pattern of stage snow are crucial. But since the technicians who would operate the equipment live in distant parts of the city, the possibility of technical run-throughs before Thursday was questionable, owing to the possibility of icy roads.

Then there was the cold. The 151-year-old church, with its stained glass windows, cracked arches and scarred floor is a perfectly picturesque setting for the play. The story of the Snow Queen was published just eight years before the church was built. But the time-worn, termite-bitten building, with its high, high ceilings is impossible to heat. When Gastelum produced the show for the first time last year, the temperature was in the idyllic 60s and 70s, she said.

THE SNOW QUEEN

What: A puppet version of the Hans Christian Andersen wintery fairy tale about a child whose heart is infected with cynicism before he is redeemed by the loyalty of a friend. Presented by Pandora Gastelum of the Mudlark Puppeteers.

Where: The Marigny Opera House, 725 St. Ferdinand St..

When: Thurs (Jan. 30) to Sun (Feb. 2) at 7.

Admission: Thurs: adults $15; students and seniors, $20; children under 12, $5. Fri-Sun, adults, $30; students and seniors, $20; children under 12, $5.

On Tuesday, 40 seats for the opening night show had already been sold and another dozen complementary passes had been given out to a local charity. The show, Gastelum said, would go on. By Thursday, she reasoned, the roads should be safe, and the temperature would have risen some. If worse came to worse, she and the other members of the human cast would just roll with the punches as far as the technical aspects of the play were concerned.

Gastelum is the owner of the splendidly threadbare Mudlark Public Theater, which is only a few blocks away from the Marigny Opera House, across St. Claude Avenue. Gastelum is one of New Orleans’ premier puppeteers. Her shows, such as “The Axeman’s Jazz” and “Blue Book: A Dioramic Guide to the Days and Ways of Storyville,” blend authentic historical elements with the mythic feel of adult folktales.

"The Snow Queen" is a bit different. The production of the traditional children's story, rewritten for the stage by Gastelum, is a sort of master’s class in puppet making and performance. Five weeks ago, Gastelum took on 13 apprentices from the ages of 19 to 50-something. The volunteer puppeteers learned the Mudlark method of creating and manipulating old-fashioned string and stick puppets.

"The Snow Queen" is the product of their apprenticeship. Last year was a big success, she said.

Gastelum is 31. She studied theater and sociology at New York University and honed her puppetry skills in Europe and Asia. She’s an actress, singer and all-around star of the St. Claude Avenue arts scene. Until Tuesday, I’d never spoken to her about her year studying mortuary science.

After graduation she panicked, she said. She felt as if she needed to focus on some marketable skill. Her parents had both been intensive care unit nurses. For some reason, undertaking school seemed like a sensible path. And, in the beginning anyway, it was. Gastelum took to her studies. She became her class president. But in the end, the profession wasn’t for her.

Yes, she said, there is some tantalizing corollary between mortuary science and sculpting puppets. But the relationship is pretty vague, really. There’s nothing morbid about bringing puppets to life on the stage, after all. Just the opposite.

Nobody gets rich producing puppet shows. "The Snow Queen," which is paid for by a grant from the Big Easy Awards, is no exception. The things that take the most work never produce the most income, Gastelum said. But that doesn’t mean there’s no reward.

The puppeteer said that she’s constantly aware of the cultural shifts going on along St. Claude Avenue, where the neighborhood makeup is in a continual evolution from working class to bohemian to professional residents. Producing a puppet show with apprentices in a salvaged church seems to be an appropriate project in the shifting post-Katrina landscape. She sees it as a part of her role in what she calls “the re-imagining of New Orleans.”

As I left the old church, the rain had turned to sleet. Tiny particles of ice gathered on my black Corolla. A passerby commented on the cold. She said that she’d heard Hurricane Katrina was preceded by a severe New Orleans winter that included snow. She hoped that wouldn’t happen this year. I concurred.

Pandora Gastelum and the Mudlark Public Theater Watch as puppet master Pandora Gastelum describes the Mudlark Public Theater adult production of Blue Book: A Dioramic Guide to the Days and Ways of Storyville, as the troupe rehearses for NOLA Fringe Fest 2013. For times and tickets go to nofringe.org.